OKPOLICY.ORG
What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.
This week OK Policy released a statement in response to the Supreme Court’s health law ruling; it’s now time to move forward with implementation. We blogged about the shrinking state workforce, which has dropped by 1,633 employees since 2001. We also blogged about controversies in Norman and Tulsa that demonstrate the risk of too much Chamber of Commerce-driven policy.
Watch a compelling 6-minute documentary about undocumented American youth on the OK Policy Blog. Guest blogger John Thompson finds reasons for optimism at the Vision 2020 conference about the future of public education in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoman complained in an editorial that an OK Policy piece showing how competing plans for the Bush tax cuts would affect each income bracket was ‘class warfare.’ Our Director David Blatt wrote in The Journal Record about why tax cuts won’t help Oklahoma’s long-term unemployed. Listen to OK Policy’s Director on KOSU and watch policy analyst Kate Richey’s interview on KJRH about the impact of the Supreme Court’s health law ruling in Oklahoma.
Tulsa People magazine profiled Vince LoVoi, “Renaissance man” and OK Policy’s Board Chair. David Blatt was interviewed about the tax cut debate in Oklahoma for the American politics blog of an international news magazine. The Muskogee Phoenix carried the announcement that Linda Edmonson has joined our Board of Directors.
In The Know, Policy Notes
- Read the opinions issued by the sitting Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Affordable Care Act ruling.
- Pro Publica shares numbers on the U.S.’s billion dollar and growing for-profit detention industry.
- A Princeton economist and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve examines what a pro-growth agenda based on logic and facts rather than partisan ideology would look like.
- SCOTUSblog provides a summary in plain English of the Supreme Court’s immigration decision.
- The New Republic discusses the tens of millions of Americans without access to health care who could continue to be denied if the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act.
- 32.2 percent – Percentage drop in the 4-week average of continued claims for unemployment in Oklahoma between now and 2010
- $140,800,000 – Amount of uncollected taxes from online transactions in Oklahoma, TY 2012
- 120, 235 – Number of people with a disability in Oklahoma who receive Social Security income, 2010
- $366 million – Amount general revenue collections through May 2012 remain below pre-downturn FY ’07 levels, or 6.8 percent
- 69.4 percent – Percentage increase in premiums for family health coverage in Oklahoma between 2000 and 2009
